Multi position lever assemblies, such as a car automatic gear shift mechanism, may require a lever to traverse a slot or gap in a lever assembly mechanism. These mechanisms have a control lever that moves through a slot area. The control lever typically has a home position, for example, the “park” position in a PRNDL gear shift, but may temporarily rest at one or several stop positions along the travel path of the control lever. Since debris or other foreign matter may enter the gap and interfere with the lever assembly, a gap seal cover is provided to protect the internal lever mechanism from debris while allowing the lever mechanism to traverse the gap.
FIG. 1 shows a first prior gap seal assembly 100. The first prior assembly 100 consists of a molded housing 160 and brush assembly 110 that is fastened to the housing 160 utilizing one or more fastening mechanisms (not shown). The brush assembly 110 includes multiple bristle elements that individually extend inward to collectively cover the gap area. As a shift lever mechanism (not shown) passes through the brush assembly 110, individual bristles are temporarily displaced by the shift lever. An individual bristle element may be deflected forward in the direction of the advancing shift lever, may deflect upward or downward, for example when the lever is substantially aligned with the bristle element, or may deflect substantially backward, contrary to the direction of the advancing shift lever as the lever advances past the position of the bristle. Ideally, once the shift lever has advanced beyond the bristle element, the bristle element will resume its initial shape and position, contributing to cover the gap seal.
The first prior assembly 100 is complex and costly. It requires assembly of multiple components formed of multiple materials. Additionally, the bristles in the brush assembly tend to take a set when the multi position mechanism is moved from one position to the next, and particularly after the mechanism has been left in one position for a period of time. This set causes the gap to become and remain exposed, providing a source of contamination and potential pinch points.
For these and other reasons, the first prior gap seal assembly 100 manufactured in accordance with the background art as shown in FIG. 1 will often be undesirable. For example, as explained above, the first prior gap seal assembly 100 design of the background art is problematic in performance due to the tendency of the brush bristles to take a set and fail under high heat and deflection loads.
A second prior gap seal cover is a floor mat utilizing flexible fingers to seal the slot openings in an automobile floorboard that facilitates the travel for the shanks of foot pedals. The rubber fingers are inclined to meet at roughly a 45-degree angle, forming a chevron pattern. Like the brush bristles in the first current gap seal assembly, the rubber fingers are displaced as the lever moves through the gap. Since the rubber fingers are not supported or reinforced, the fingers may likewise take a set or become damaged due to either heat or repeated displacement force. In addition, rubber may become brittle at high or low temperature extremes, which may cause the rubber fingers to take a set in hot or cold conditions, or when coming into contact with the shift lever mechanism when the lever itself is hot or cold.
A third prior gap seal cover is an automotive gearshift indicator device. The third cover has a shift lever assembly for the automatic transmission with an aperture in the shift mechanism concealed by a slide cover that is attached to the lever body. The shift lever shaft passes through a bore in the slide cover, so that the slide cover moves with the shift lever when the shift lever is operated. The cover may be a metal tape that is coiled into spools at both ends of the shift lever aperture. As the shift lever is moved, the tape unwinds from a first spool and winds into a second spool. In order to ensure an adequate seal, the tape may be fastened to the edges of the aperture so that the gap remains sealed as the tape moves with the shift lever through the gap. This third type of gap cover consists of multiple components and is complex to manufacture and assemble.
Other previous gap seal covers suffer similar shortcomings, such as an automatic transmission shifter seal gap mechanism where a ring fastened around the gear shift lever, and two sliders are attached fore and aft of the ring. When the gear shift lever is moved, the advancing slider opens a gap seal, while the trailing slider closes the gap seal. This seal mechanism is zipper-like, and like the gap seal covers mentioned above, consists of multiple components and is relatively complex to assemble.
Another gap cover employs layered plates where the shifter shank passes through an aperture in the center, topmost plate, and this top plate slides over lower sliding plates as the shifter shank is moved. Similarly, yet another gap cover employs fore and aft accordion style covers that expand and compress when the shifter shank is moved. As with other existing designs, these styles involve multiple parts that are separately manufactured and assembled, increasing both the cost of component manufacture and the cost of assembly.
Although the difficulties mentioned above by way of example are described as applying to the current assembly designs of the background art, one or more of the foregoing difficulties may apply to structures from the background art other than those described. Furthermore, while various aspects and embodiments of the present invention may overcome one or more of the difficulties described above, not every difficulty mentioned above is necessarily overcome by all aspects and embodiments of the present invention, and there may be aspects and embodiments of the present invention that overcome difficulties in the background art other than those mentioned by way of examples above.
But whether such difficulties exist in the background art described above or in other structures from the background art that are not shown, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address such deficiencies and inadequacies.